


5 Things Martin Picked Up From His Partners

by BuffyRowan



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Gen, bond between the halves of F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M., connection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 04:11:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8313532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuffyRowan/pseuds/BuffyRowan
Summary: Another 5 + 1 fic, this time about some of the little habits and quirks Martin has picked up with others merging as Firestorm





	

**Author's Note:**

> These are things that Martin or others have noticed. What Martin hasn't noticed is that in his own mind that his habitual formality slips, and he thinks of his partners by their nicknames.
> 
> The number and type of things he's picked up from partners reflects a mixture of time and depth of bond. He and Ronnie spent a large amount of time merged with very little control, so he picked up the most from him. Martin's had more control and less time with Jax, plus there was an initial reserve between the two, so Martin picked up less. And he only merged once with Valentina, under trying circumstances.

1\. Pizza

Before the months spent sharing mind and body with Ronald, Martin hadn't been a big fan of pizza. Partly because he'd grown up eating strictly kosher food cooked by his loving (and very Jewish) mother, grandmother, and aunts. Partly because the first time he'd tried pizza when he'd gone off to college he'd apparently chosen the wrong restaurant and ended up with a very nasty case of food poisoning. 

But Ronnie loved the stuff, and even now he found himself with the odd craving for that unique blend of crust, tomato sauce, and melted cheese. He still couldn't stomach it cold the next day, or appreciate the variety of toppings that Ronald had, but a good, hot cheese pizza, or pepperoni with black olives, those he could appreciate.

 

2\. Snowflakes

Clarissa had smiled at it, complimented Martin on choosing such a lovely necklace. And it was lovely, a beautiful pendant of silver filigree with a small opal in the center. Like every other piece of jewelry Martin had ever bought her, it was tasteful and unique and incredibly lovely. She'd saved her tears for when she was alone. Because she'd overheard Ronnie on the phone with his fiance, heard him call her "his snowflake" in a loving tone. It was only the fact that Martin didn't seem to realize that he'd done it, that he'd chosen a gift Ronnie would have chosen for Caitlin for her, that kept her heart from breaking. She chose to focus on the love behind the gift, rather than the shape of it.

 

3\. Marvel Comic Books

Despite what some of his students might have thought of him, Martin was not a lab hermit. He had interests beyond laboratories and science. He enjoyed music, theater, and science fiction novels. And while he’d read the occasional comic book at a friend’s house, he’d never gotten interested in them the way those friends had. Too light, too quick, he preferred a good novel. 

During the months they’d spend merged, living homeless, and doubting their own combined sanity, Ronnie had regaled him with stories of his favorite Marvel characters. And Martin had come to appreciate the true depths of social commentary and character development he’d missed as a boy. He’d even remembered to tease Ronnie after their separation, after he’d cut his hair from the stringy shoulder-length mess it had become back to his usual short cut. Martin hadn’t changed any during their time on the street, since he’d basically been a voice in Ronnie’s head, but he’d heckled Ronnie about going from Bucky Barnes to Steve Rogers in twenty minutes. And when they’d been off training, Ronald had picked up issues of Doctor Strange for him when he’d picked up his Avengers and Deadpool comics.

 

4\. Good Tools

Martin wasn’t a chalkboard academic, limited solely to the realms of theoretical equations endless discussion. True, his passions did lie more towards physics and other elements of science that tended away from the more messy side of things, but that was more Martin following certain ideas down rabbit holes than any disinclination towards the rest.

But after he and Jax had been partners for a while, Martin found himself reminded of the joys of being hands-on. Of taking a good set of tools, and making some machine bow to his design and work exactly as he meant it to. If nothing else, the Waverider proved infinitely more challenging in terms of physical maintenance than any car Martin had ever owned. Though he and Jax had spent an afternoon in companionable conversation about the 1967 GTX convertible he’d helped a friend restore to working condition back in the early 80s. The lines had been superb on that car, and the experimental paint they’d whipped up had turned out looking like galaxies and nebulae. 

 

5\. Russian Fairy Tales

They’d only merged the once, and for less than an hour, but Valentina Vostok had left an impression on him. He didn’t know why they’d been so important to her, or why exactly this was what he’d taken from the merge with her, simply counted himself lucky that it was something so relatively benign. And the balance of beauty and harshness in the stories intrigued him. He started searching out books of Russian folktales, interested to learn more about the characters he knew without actually knowing. 

 

\+ 1 The Harmony of the Spheres

When Jax tried, and failed, to ask her about what Ronnie had told her about merging with Dr. Stein, Caitlin had understood. Ronnie had had a hard time trying to describe it to her, had spent hours trying to describe it. Jax had similarly struggled to find the words, so she’d known what he meant. And if Dr. Stein’s story about his brief merge with Dr. Vostok was accurate, Caitlin had a notion that even she’d seen it, even if she’d ignored it in her grand plans for Soviet dominance.

Caitlin had seen it, too, if not quite as first-hand as Jax and Ronnie. When the team talked science, any kind of science, it was obvious that Dr. Stein had an amazing mind. A once-in-a-generation type of mind. He’d grasp concepts so quickly, and find the simple, elegant connections between concepts that were so easy once he’d pointed them out, but she’d never have even thought about looking in that direction before he did. 

It made Caitlin think about elementary school, reading the Wrinkle in Time series. About tesseracts, kything, and Echthroi. About a philosophy class she’d taken back in college and the music of the spheres. About magic and Merlin and Obi-Wan Kenobi and a thousand other things that a scientist shouldn’t necessarily be thinking of about another scientist. But she couldn’t help it, because she was convinced that while conventional histories might not know the name of Dr. Martin Stein, among metahumans and superheroes she had a feeling he’d take a place in history none would ever rival.


End file.
